Child Support Laws in South Carolina

Find out how child support is calculated in South Carolina, and how those payments can be modified.

Both Parents Contribute to Child Support

In
South Carolina, either parent may request child support, but both must
contribute to the child's well-being. A court could order one or both
parents – or in cases where both parents are under 18, then the
grandparents – to make payments. Generally, however, the non-custodial
parent actually pays support. The non-custodial parent is the one who spends less than half time with the child (or children). The custodial parent,
who has the most time with the child, remains responsible for child
support too, but the law assumes that this parent spends the required
amount directly on the child.

You can estimate your fair share of support by using the South Carolina’s Child Support Guidelines.
In most circumstances, the amount of a child support payment depends on
the number of children and the income of both parents. In addition,
parents must cover the cost of the child’s medical care, childcare, and
other expenses, like those required for the child’s education. The way
the parents split their parenting time (custody) also impacts how
payments are divided between them.

Calculating Child Support

South Carolina provides a Child Support Calculator
to help you determine your base amount of child support. While this is a
useful tool, there is no guarantee that the number given by this
calculator will be what a court orders you to pay. This is because a
court can adjust the amount of support either up or down if following
the guidelines gives a result that would be unjust to a parent or the
child.

Before you use the calculator, take a look at the state’s Child Support Obligation Worksheets.
These worksheets will help you compute income and they include
deductions that can get you to a more accurate result than using the
calculator alone.

There are three different worksheets. In a sole custody
arrangement, where the child lives with one parent a majority of the
time, parents use Worksheet A. For split custody, where parents divide
the kids between them – mom takes the older child while dad has the
younger child, for example – use Worksheet B. For shared parenting,
where the child lives equal time with each parent, use Worksheet C.

Income Used for Child Support

The guidelines determine payments based on actual gross income. For child support purposes, gross income
is all income from any source. This includes your salary, wages,
bonuses and commissions from your job, but also any pension or severance
pay. It is also money that comes from any rents, dividends, or a trust,
among other things. If you are unemployed, chances are you still have
income for child support purposes in the form of social security,
workers’ compensation, unemployment or veterans’ benefits. Alimony
received counts too, and in some cases, a court could even identify
income based on the value of assets like a vacation home or a car.

A
court has the authority to impute income to either parent who is
voluntarily unemployed or unemployed unless that parent has a good
reason for working less or not at all. For example, if a disability
keeps a parent from working, then they will not be held responsible for
additional income. Likewise, a court takes into consideration whether a
parent stays home to care for young or disabled children. Although a
court may impute income to the custodial parent, this amount will be
offset by the cost of day care.

There are a few benefits that you
can leave out of gross income like general assistance, Temporary
Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), Supplemental Security Income (SSI),
and food stamps. You can also exclude income from other household
members.

Likewise, you can make deductions to gross income based
on payments you’ve already made for the child or the other parent’s
behalf. These include alimony, other child support paid, and you may
even get a break if you are supporting other children in the home,
although not step-children unless you have a court order requiring you
to support them. There are further adjustments for health insurance
premiums paid, extraordinary medical expenses, and work-related child
care costs.

The worksheets above can help you with these calculations. This link to the guidelines, too, includes instructions that further define what you must include as income and what you can leave out.

Challenging the Amount of Support

There
is a rebuttable presumption that the amount determined by the
guidelines is the correct amount needed to support a child. Sometimes,
the total amount given by the guidelines or the way that number is
divided is unfair to a parent or the child. Before a child support order
is in place, either parent can ask to adjust the amount of support.
This is called deviating from the guidelines. Once a parent makes a
request for this, a court will review the following factors to decide
whether a higher or lower amount would be more just:

the child or parent’s educational expenses

how the property was divided at divorce

debts

if there are more than six children to support

unreimbursed extraordinary medical or dental expenses

mandatory deductions of retirement pensions and union fees

support obligations for other dependents

monthly fixed payments imposed by a court or operation of law

the child’s income

whether
the non-custodial parent’s income is significantly less than the
custodial parent’s income (making the guidelines impractical)

alimony, and

any agreement by the parties if court finds it is in the best interest of the child.

Modifying the Amount

The
courts in South Carolina have streamlined the process for changing
(modifying) the amount of child support due. Either parent can request a
change, but a parent seeking to reduce payments has to show a
substantial change in circumstances to justify the modification. A
substantial change tends to include life events like losing a job,
developing a medical condition or disability that limits your ability to
work, or if the child gets married, joins the military, or turns 18 and
completes high school (in other words, becomes emancipated).